The invention relates to a trailer for a bicycle, having a tow bar for coupling to the bicycle and a braking device acting on one wheel or the wheels of the trailer.
Trailers for bicycles have long been known. Most of these trailers are not equipped with a drive or brake and, because of the limited driving power of the cyclist, this has a negative effect on travelling speed and on handling behavior during braking. Gradients are particularly difficult to negotiate during the ascent and pose a big problem when braking during the descent, in case the trailer has a comparatively large mass. For this reason, the prior art has proposed bicycle trailers equipped with their own drive and a braking device.
A bicycle trailer of this kind is described in DE 10 2010 051 838 A1, for example. This bicycle trailer has an electronic logic circuit acting on the brake of the trailer and configured so that the trailer does not exert any noticeable effect upon the handling behavior of the bicycle in wheeling mode or on braking of the bicycle. Signals from a pedal pressure sensor, a braking force sensor, a force sensor in the region of the trailer coupling and a revolution sensor are sent to the electronic logic circuit. With the exception of the revolution sensor, which is arranged in the region of one of the trailer wheels, the sensors are arranged on the bicycle.
The disadvantage of the proposed trailer is that it cannot be universally used in the proposed manner with conventional bicycles, since the trailer requires sensor data acquired on the bicycle side. Thus the trailer can only be used in the proposed operating mode with a bicycle that is fitted with the corresponding sensors to capture the data required for the logic circuit.